


The Dragon and the Serpent

by nianeyna



Category: Liveship Traders Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-22
Updated: 2007-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-21 00:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nianeyna/pseuds/nianeyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sleepless nights come with the territory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon and the Serpent

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at [my livejournal](http://nianeyna.livejournal.com/3515.html).

_Murky green darkness. Underwater._

 _Then, a flash of brilliant red, receding into the gloom. Another._

 _Suddenly a huge head rears up, surrounded by a ruff of magnificent red spikes tipped with gold. The mouth opens, slowly, showing needle sharp teeth. The serpent’s eyes hold endless sadness -_

 _The scene changes. A perfect, cloudless blue sky. A red bird in the distance flies closer, and closer, and closer still, and it is not a bird but a dragon, its impossibly red scales blinding in the sun. It hovers, stretching out its neck until there is nothing in the world but its head and its ageless, accusing eyes._

I sat up in bed with a start, the bedclothes tangled around me and my breath coming in short gasps. The same dream again. I’d had it for four nights running.

After a moment I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, shrugging into a light robe. I sighed; there would be no more sleep for me tonight. I drifted from the bedroom into my shop. Light from a streetlamp outside fell on bins of beads and shelves stocked with wooden cups and figurines. It was comforting, to be surrounded by the work of my own hands.

I went into the back and found a carving knife and two small elongated pieces of wood, taking them to a chair set in the window. I did not light any lamps. I didn’t need to see, only feel.

The dragon and the serpent. I hefted one of the pieces of wood in my right hand. What did it mean?

A tiny curl of wood fell to the floor.

I sat in the dark and carved a dragon and a serpent, and I thought about destiny.


End file.
